Israel is responsible for the disappearance of former Iranian Deputy Defense Minister Ali Reza Asgari, who has been missing since February, his wife Ziba Ahmadi said in an interview to Iranian news agency Mehr.

Family of Ali Reza Asgari, Iran’s former deputy defense minister who disappeared from Turkey last month, visits Turkish embassy in Tehran demanding information on his whereabouts. Asgari’s wife rejects reports he defected to West, smuggled family out of Iran: ‘We are here, those are our enemies lies’

"We view the Zionist regime responsible for my husband's kidnapping. Israel should know that it will be punished for this illegal, inhumane act." Ahmadi said, adding that 90 percent of the evidence pointed to Israel.

Ahmadi said that she did no receive any information on her husband, and urged the Iranian leadership to treat the matter with the utmost urgency.

"Even though the Foreign Ministry and the Intelligence Ministry and other bodies are handling the situation, I still have not received any information about him," she said.

The 63-year-old Iranian general is a former senior member of Iran's Revolutionary Guards and disappeared in Istanbul, Turkey on February 7, 2007.

Iranian officials said in March that Asgari was believed to have been interrogated by American and other Western intelligence officials on secrets he was exposed to while serving in the Iranian Defense Ministry.

Other reports claimed that the general defected to the West with documents and maps that shed light on Iran’s military and the Revolutionary Guards' links to Hizbullah, Islamic Jihad, the “Mahadi Army” and the “Badr Corps” (military forces of The Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq).

Sources said that Asgari was also in possession of documents related to Iran’s ballistic missiles project and was privy to confidential information regarding the Islamic Republic’s plan in case of a conflict with the US.